Teen Mom OG: The Forever Knot

There was just one episode of Teen Mom OG this week, but it was A LOT. The parents of the teen moms and dads came off looking like a bunch of wack-jobs, which helps us understand how these folks ended up pregnant at 16. It also made me feel really great about my own dysfunction (which is the payoff of watching these shows, right?).

Catelynn

Surprise! Butch relapsed. Did I call that or what? In fact, I doubt he was ever really clean since his last vacation to jail (which he pretty much confirmed in a tweaky video interview on the aftershow, where he said the “relapse” was a three month crack binge). He tells Tyler the news over the phone couched in an announcement that he’s going to call Dr. Drew for help. Tyler is super disappointed, but trying to pretend that he’s not. Butch calls Dr. Drew, who states the obvious. He asks Butch how he can expect to stay clean without working on himself and being in a program. It’s pretty obvious Butch isn’t ready to commit to anything as healthy or sane as that. When Butch talks to Tyler, he says the only reason he hasn’t completely given up trying to get clean is cuz Tyler never turns his back on him. Aww, emotional blackmail is so sweet.

Tyler meets up with a his mom to talk about Butch at a restaurant that serves only bacon. They eat strips of bacon that are suspended from a wire rack with charred wooden clothespins. Tyler’s mom questions his terminally negative outlook on life. I can’t figure her out. I’ve always thought she seemed pretty normal, yet she had (not one, but) two kids with Butch, so there’s definitely something off. Maybe she’s not really sane, just heavily medicated?

Farrah

Speaking of needing medication, Debra is still in town after Sophia’s b-day party. They discuss Debra’s relationship and wedding plans. Farrah is holding a huge grudge against Deb’s fiance, David, because he called her out on her bullshit. I hate her, but can’t really blame her on this one. The dude is creepy. He’s super condescending and picked a fight with Farrah the first time they ever met. What kind of mom’s boyfriend does that? I’ll tell you: A bowtie and one large gold hoop-wearing, attention-whoring 50-something doctor (allegedly) who openly admitted to watching Teen Mom before appearing on the show. I think this weirdo saw a really desperate and needy nut of a woman on TV and decided to jump in the middle of the drama.

Later, Farrah takes Sophia to meet David for the first time at a dinner in LA. She spends the whole meal complaining about the nanny to her mom, while David rubs his head and pretends to be exasperated. Also, he’s wearing a wedding band, WTF?

Farrah tells her mom she doesn’t take this David thing seriously and she’s not going to be around if she marries this guy. It would be super manipulative and rotten if she weren’t right about David. Shades of RHOC’s Brianna and Vicki during the Brooks years here. Here’s the thing, this guy sucks, but Farrah would be acting like this regardless because she’s a needy, fucked up narcissist who can’t stand if her parents are happy without her.

Maci

I take back everything nice I’ve ever said about Ryan’s fiancee Mackenzie, she’s an immature, two-faced little shit-stirrer. She had lunch with Maci last week, pretended to be all reasonable and understanding, then ran and told Jen and Larry everything Maci said. They’re pissed! They argue that it’s all “bullcrap” but we all know it’s not because we have eyes. Ryan doesn’t have visits at his own house and Benny does whine about having to go to Jen and Larry’s. Mackenzie is sitting back and admiring her handywork while Ryan looks like he wants to disappear and Larry goes off on a crazy rant. He says all kinds of stupid stuff, but the highlights are that he thinks he is entitled to make decisions for Bentley and Maci doesn’t know shit because she’s only 25.

My question is how the hell do these people not accept that Bentley’s mom calls the shots and knows what’s best for him? They’re the grandparents, which makes them not “entitled” to shit. They had their chance at parenting and they ended up with Mr. Dead Eyes, who doesn’t even have an opinion about his own kid because that would require too much effort. Maci is oblivious to Mackenzie’s duplicity and thinks Ryan and Mac would like to go on a double date to an escape room. This seems like a terrible idea and luckily Ryan blows her off. So, Maci and Taylor go to the escape room and there’s four minutes of my life I’m never getting back.

Amber

Amber is adding a makeup line to her web boutique. She’s doing a lot of work from her bed and Matt is pretending to be supportive by chopping tomatoes and frying spaghetti. The producer points out that she has never seen him cook before. That’s because he is too busy sitting on the couch and spending Amber’s money. In a rare lucid moment of self-care and self-reflection, Amber admits to her massage therapist that she doesn’t trust Matt and has serious reservations about getting married.

Amber takes her strange sidekick, Annette, to look at wedding dresses. I can’t figure out why Annette and her man are always hanging around Amber and Matt’s house. They seem much older (actually, they are probably Matt’s age) and like maybe they are getting paid to appear. So, allegedly Annette is getting married after 32 years with her fiance. This is the weak premise they use to get Amber into a wedding dress so she can have a full-on meltdown and admit she doesn’t want to marry Matt. This is a particularly timely segment since it’s been reported in the last couple days that Amber finally dumped Matt after he failed a polygraph amid cheating rumors. It sounds like that was all captured on camera, so I can’t wait to see it play out. This stupid show always gives me a reason to come back for more.

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I wish Amber would leave that creepy so called boyfriend Matt. He’s just mooching off of her. Until she learns to really love herself and is able to live alone by herself for a while she will continue to let people like that in her life.

Why is Maci talking shit about the grandparents to Ryan’s fiance? And on camera! Maci fucked up, she needed at least a few years to get the fiance on her side. She still likes her in laws. Lol. Anyhow I think Maci exaggerated and I’m sure Bentley likes to play both sides when he wants. I bet he has a ton of friends at Jen and Larry’s. What’s he going to do at Ryan’s house? I get it. Now that Bentley is getting older its probably time to change things up. Amber listen to your head! Dont do it. Farrah is Farrah but I can’t take her mother. Talking shit about the nanny, ugh I can’t with her. I forget about Cate and Tyler.

I agree. I’m Team Maci and think Jen and Larry need to know their place BUT she shouldn’t have put Mackenzie in that position. As Mackenzie said, if Ryan were at lunch with her ex letting him trash her parents she would be pissed. Knowing this was on camera Mackenzie had no choice but tell Jen and Larry or she would seem disloyal. But she should have been honest with Maci at the time and told her she wasn’t comfortable with it.

Thanks Becky J, great as always. Remember, McKenzie is only 20, and has a son. So she can play young and dumb, but isn’t. This Amber and Matt situation, ugh. It was the commercial thingy On Demand all week, her standing on the pedestal, saying “get this off me NOW”. So I saw it a lot. Boy, I love this mess. Thanks again!! 🙂

I am a 44-year old woman and I can’t get enough of these train wrecks…..not sure what that says about me, lol. I think Amber has changed so much since the beginning of this show and I think Gary should give a little….he keeps making these passive aggressive comments about who she used to be and it is time to move on. I do think his wife is attempting to get him to change how he thinks. Matt is just creepy.

I think Farrah is one of the most dreadful people I have ever seen on reality tv. I do not get how her mother puts up with that. She is disgusting and needs to be told that. The people she has around her all enable her behaviors and she is not attempting to be a nicer person. I am curious what she really thinks when she sees herself on tv. She is raising her daughter to be the same loathsome person she is.

Hold onto your hats ladies, she already has a video out. You may be able to google it. She had her own MTV special where they aired it. She’s a pip that’s for sure.
I’m 53 and still watch this dreck ; (

srt, I have a few years on you and I can’t get enough of this train wreck either. Farrah is vile, but so are her parents. I don’t think either parent works and I think they sponge off Farrah, which gives her the power to demean and humiliate them. I don’t like anyone at all in this family. The parents are so whiney and ass kissing. Farrah is just so ugly on the inside and all of this plastic surgery is making her ugly on the outside too. Sophia does not stand a chance, she is a lonely child and I feel bad for her, she has those dead eyes. I agree that Farrah is raising her daughter to be loathsome. What a mess.

I just have to say that there is no way dumb Maci and her husband would ever finish an escape room. I’ve done one with my friends (We all have college degrees) and we couldn’t finish. Sorry, just had to vent that!

When I watch Farrah and her mother fight I feel like I am watching a conversation in a psych ward. I never know exactly what they are fighting about and nothing they say makes any sense.
Amber selling clothes and makeup? What makes her an expert on fashion and makeup? Just because she wears them doesn’t mean she knows anything. If she is selling loungewear, maybe but the only memorable outfit I have seen is the reindeer onesie.

I just sort of watched this. I had a site malfunction to deal with and wad distracted. Am I the only one who LOVED Amber’s pink hair? And that was one of the most beautiful wedding dresses I’ve ever seen.

I do not want her to marry Matt thought. Amber has borderline personality disorder which is very hard to treat. She seems to be doing well on her meds. I worry she thinks she has to settle because of that though. It’s a pretty serious mental illness.

At least she’s being smart about not having anymore kids. Matt seemed like he was bummed out on a recent show when she was saying she’s done due to her mental illness and how she can’t be pregnant on her meds. Seemed like the asshole was encouraging her to go off her meds!

But those baby mama’s don’t make $$. I could see him plotting to have Amber go off her meds, get pregnant and have the baby, then have some sort of breakdown so he gets custoday and she has to pay him child support. He seems THAT vile and manipulative to me.

Twilly, remember now, Matt said that the ultimate goal is opening a facility. Can you imagine? Yeah come be sober, drink If drugs the prob, do drugs if drinking is the problem. Such an asshole, he needs to go away, far, far away.

Farrah is awful but I did notice, while watching a daytime rerun of her original 16 and Pregnant episode, that she is now repeating a lot of the ugly things her mom said to her during that time (like when she loses her sh*t over ‘pity parties’) I’d also forgotten her mom swinging at her during a car ride. Again, Farrah is awful but watching that episode again all these years later felt a little eye opening.

Yes her mother was mentally abusive to her. The shit she used to say to Farrah and about the dead boyfriend. I can see why Farrah has so much anger toward her parents. And her father probably just sat back and let Deb mentally fuck them up. I mean even the older daughter wants nothing to do with Deb.

They all though, have now spent eight years going to various therapy, and I now think they are using and acting so dysfunctional, to continue. Knowing that the current Teen Mom season was after the Family Boot Camp kinda proves that something is going on to prolong the dysfunctional family story. They don’t want to fix, or have fixed and don’t want us to know. Betcha anything.

Also I remember her mom saying she wouldn’t be in the delivery room. Because it was “gross”. Expecting Farrah to be in there alone. Not excusing Farrah’s devil behavior but they are both cut from the same cloth.

Thank you for a great recap. It looked to me like Cate was buzzed following those chickens around. Tyler seems like the most miserable young man. I hope he goes to college, maybe that will give him something to look forward too.
Larry needs anger management, he can be scary. Jen has a sad vibe surrounding her. Ryan has nothing going for him and the fiancé should have told Maci she was uncomfortable discussing that topic. She is a pot stirrer.
Amber was so beautiful in that dress. I hope it is true that she is dumping Matt. She deserves better.
Farrah’s parents made her into the woman she is today. They mooch off of her and enable her. They deserve everything she dishes out to them. She needs to distance herself from them and maybe that would help her. She seems to be trying to follow what her shrink suggests. That is at least a start and she has a long long way to go.

Debra and Farrah should not be near each other for years. Exchange a b’day and Christmas cards but avoid each. They have become very sick together and whatever emotional damage they wanted to cause to each other, they have lost control.
Very sick of them both to sit their listening to the horrible words that come out of Farrah’s and Debra’s mouth.
I also ff past their scenes.

I was really happy when I read Amber left Matt but when watching the previews for the next episode, Amber calls her brother, long distance, to ask if HE would get married in Vegas. I can see her wanting Leah with her but to basically get approval from your brother, who by the way, just like Leah and “boo boo,” she can’t call her brother Sean by his name, it has to be “bubby.” If I were Matt, that would have been a huge slap in the face to me. If my girl/boyfriend were old enough to marry, the fact that they called their sibling for their opinion would be an end to it. I’m hoping this wasn’t all for the camera.

Her brother has been her support system since the mom is on drugs or alcoholic and the dad was one and passed away. Its obvious she sees him as a father figure looking for advice and guidance. Don’t see what’s weird about that.

Its not weird to me for a sister to call her brother for advice. Not weird at all. Or the other way around. People can and do have relationships with family and friends outside of a marriage and especially so if the person is only a boyfriend or girlfriend.